This invention relates to a lever fitting type connector in which by pivotally moving a lever mounted on a male connector, the male connector is moved between a fitted position where the male connector is fitted in a female connector and a non-fitted position where the male connector is not fitted in the female connector.
For bringing a pair of male and female connectors (having multi-pole terminals) into and out of fitting connection with each other, there has heretofore been used a lever fitting type connector in which a manipulating force is reduced by the use of a lever (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
Such a lever fitting type connector is shown in FIG. 6. The lever fitting type connector 100 shown in FIG. 6 comprises a male connector 102 connected to ends of wires 104, a lever 101 having boss portion-receiving holes 111a and 111b (formed in a center portion thereof) receiving boss portions 121a and 121b formed on opposite side faces of the male connector 102, and a female connector 103 having a fitting space for the insertion of the male connector 102 therein.
The lever 101 includes a pair of side plates superposed respectively on the opposite side faces of the male connector 102, and a manipulating portion 114 interconnecting distal end portions of the pair of side plates. Each of the side plates includes the boss portion-receiving holes 111a and 111b formed in its center portion and receiving the respective boss portions 121a and 121b, a fulcrum projection 112 formed on its proximal end portion and serving as a fulcrum for rotation movement of the lever, and a temporary-retaining piece portion 113 formed at the lower side of its distal end portion. At an initial stage of the fitting operation, each temporary-retaining piece portion 113 is located in a position where it is spaced from a temporary-retaining convex portion 122 (formed on and projecting from a side face of the male connector 102) in a direction away from the female connector 103, thereby disenabling the rotation movement of the lever 101 toward the female connector 103.
The female connector 103 includes a female connector housing having the above-mentioned fitting space. Two fulcrum projection guide grooves 136 are formed in an inner surface (or inner wall) of the female connector housing defining the fitting space, and extend from an upper end of the inner surface to an inner part of the fitting space. Also, fulcrum projection-receiving grooves 137 are formed in the inner surface of the female connector housing, and extend from the respective fulcrum projection guide grooves 136 in intersecting relation thereto. Further, plate-like release plate portions 135 are formed at the inner surface of the female connector housing.
Each fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137 receives the corresponding fulcrum projection 112 therein at the time of rotation movement of the lever 101, and enables this fulcrum projection 112 to serve as a fulcrum for the lever 101. Each fulcrum projection guide groove 136 is a groove through which the fulcrum projection 112 is moved into the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137. Namely, the fulcrum projection guide groove 136 guides the fulcrum projection 112 to the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137.
When the male connector 102 is moved toward the female connector 103, each release plate portion 135 is brought into contact with the inner side of the corresponding temporary-retaining piece portion 113 to elastically bend this temporary-retaining piece portion 113 outwardly, and causes the temporary-retaining piece portion 113 to slide over the temporary-retaining convex portion 122 toward the female connector 103. When each temporary-retaining piece portion 113 thus slides over the temporary-retaining convex portion 122, a rotation movement-disenabling condition of the lever 101 is canceled.
In the above lever fitting type connector 100, each fulcrum projection 112 passes through the fulcrum projection guide groove 136 as shown in FIG. 6A, and then is located in the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137. In this condition, the manipulating portion 114 is pressed toward the female connector 103, thereby pivotally moving the lever 101, and as a result the male connector 102 is pressed to be moved toward the inner part of the fitting space and is fitted in the female connector 103, with the fulcrum projections 112 serving as the fulcrum and also with the boss portion-receiving holes 111a and 111b serving as a point of application. Simultaneously when this fitting operation is effected, a lock arm (not shown) formed on the lever 101 is retainingly engaged with the female connector 103, thereby preventing the lever 101 from being moved even upon application of an accidental external force to the lever 101. In this lever fitting type connector 100, by pressing the manipulating portion 114 in the direction away from the female connector 103, the fitted condition can be canceled.
[Patent Literature 1] JP-A-2000-91026
In the above lever fitting type connector 100, the male connector 102 and the female connector 103 were sometimes kept in a half-fitted condition for some reason as shown in FIG. 6B. When the wires 104 (connected to the male connector 102) were pulled in order to cancel this half-fitted condition so as to return the lever fitting type connector into a condition in which terminals of the connector 102 were electrically disconnected respectively from terminals of the connector 103, there was sometimes encountered a problem that each temporary-retaining piece 113 failed to be returned beyond the temporary-retaining convex portion 122 in the direction away from the female connector 103 as shown in FIG. 6C. In this condition, when the manipulating portion 114 was again pressed so as to effect the fitting operation, the lever 101 began to be pivotally moved earlier than a predetermined timing, which resulted in a problem that the male connector 102 could not be fitted into the female connector 103. The term “half-fitted condition” means a condition in which the terminals of the male connector 102 are electrically connected to the respective terminals of the female connector 103, and also the lock arm is not retainingly engaged with the female connector 103.
The inventors of the present invention have studied the cause of the above problem, and have found the following. Namely, in the half-fitted condition of the lever fitting type connector 100, when the manipulating portion 114 is pressed in the direction away from the female connector 103, the lever 101 is pivotally moved, with an outer edge portion of the fulcrum projection 112 abutting against an edge wall 138 of the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137, and at this time the fulcrum projection 112 is moved from the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137 into the fulcrum projection guide groove 136. Therefore, in this condition in which the fulcrum projection 112 is located in the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 136, the temporary-retaining piece 113 is returned to the position where it is spaced from the temporary-retaining convex portion 122 in the direction away from the female connector 103. However, when trying to cancel the above half-fitted condition by pulling the wires 104 of the male connector 102 as described above, there is sometimes encountered a situation in which the outer edge portion of the fulcrum projection 112 does not abut against the edge wall 138, and the fulcrum projection 112 is moved from the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137 into the fulcrum projection guide groove 136 without rotation movement of the lever 101. Therefore, although the fulcrum projection 112 is thus located in the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 136, the temporary-retaining piece 113 fails to be returned to the position where it is spaced from the temporary-retaining convex portion 122 in the direction away from the female connector 103. This fact has been found.
As described above, when trying to cancel the above half-fitted condition by pulling the wires 104, there is sometimes encountered the situation in which an angular portion (or corner portion) 112a of the fulcrum projection 112 (that is, that portion of the fulcrum projection 112 which is located nearest to the proximal end portion of the lever 101, and has a gently-angular shape in a plan view, and is first brought into abutting engagement with the edge wall 138 when the lever 101 is pivotally moved) does not abut against the edge wall 138, and the fulcrum projection 112 is moved from the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 137 into the fulcrum projection guide groove 136 without rotation movement of the lever 101. It has been found that this situation is caused by a clearance formed between the angular portion 112a and an edge wall 139 of the fulcrum projection-receiving groove 136.